Black woman denied job because of ‘ghetto’ name

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI –  On Monday a woman who applied for a customer service job received the shock offer life, when she opened an email stating that her “ghetto” name had lost her a potential job position.

Hermeisha Robinson, 27, posted the email response from Mantality Heath on her Facebook page.

“Thank you for your interest in careers at Mantality Health,” the email read, according to Robinson’s post. “Unfortunately, we do not consider candidates that have suggestive ‘ghetto’ names. We wish the best in your career search.”

The email was signed Jordan Kimler, a nurse practitioner with the company. According to the company’s website, Mantality Health provides treatment to men suffering from low testosterone. It has multiple locations in several states.

Robinson wrote that she was upset to be turned away from a position she felt she was well qualified for.

“My feelings are very hurt and they even got me second-guessing my name, trying to figure out if my name is really that ‘ghetto,’” she wrote. “I would like for everyone to share this post because discrimination has to stop!”

One of the people sharing Robinson’s post was her cousin, Miltina Burnett. Burnett wrote on Facebook that the response made Robinson — who was named after her late father, Herman — question whether she should “change her name to fit in corporate America.”

“Don’t ever change who you are to become more like them,” Burnett wrote. “They had no right to say what they said to her.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch spoke with Mantality Health owner Kevin Meuret, who on Tuesday said that the company’s email system was hacked by someone outside Missouri. Meuret said he believes the hacker may be an angry former employee.

“I’m a father of three daughters, and that young lady getting that (response) is horrible,” Meuret told the Post-Dispatch. “That young lady opened something that must have felt like a freight train, and that’s unacceptable.”

Burnett shared images of private messages she received from Mantality Health employees about the alleged hacking.

The world we live in…